Direct Officer (Zheng Guan, 正官)

What the classic Yuan Hai Zi Ping (渊海子平) says

Its section On Direct Officer (正官论), whole.

Direct Officer (正官) is Yang Wood (甲) meeting Yin Metal (辛) and the like: yin meeting yang is the officer, yang meeting yin is the ghost (鬼), and yin and yang matching each other is what completes the way of it. Broadly it wants to run toward ground where the officer is strong, which is the month command. The month command is the month command (提纲), the lifting-rope of the chart: look at it first and everything else after. Once it is called Direct Officer, a fortune running again to ground where the officer is strong, or forming a frame, and not running into Hurting Officer (伤官) ground or into ground where Metal and Wealth (财) are strong — all of these are places where blessing is made. Direct Officer is a thing of honour and greatly dislikes punishment, clash, breaking and harm; and where the year, month and hour stems all have an officer half-showing, the blessing is likely slight. One must also look at what other pattern the year and hour enter, and where the blessing is made, before judging fortunate or ill. To seize on one road and hold to it is to be unable to follow the changes, and then an error of a hair's breadth becomes a thousand-mile mistake. The classic says: it is following the changes that makes the spirit of it. Much Direct Officer is not blessing but the reverse. Why? A person's chart should get the qi of the mean; too much and too little are the same thing. The balanced qi makes the blessing thick; a lopsided control makes calamity. Having taken the month command as Direct Officer, if the year or hour stem or branch holds even one Seven Killings (偏官), it is already mixed, and the weights must be measured carefully. It is also said: getting it in the month command is the case, and it welcomes a strong self and Direct Resource (印綬). Yang Wood using Yin Metal as officer welcomes Earth to produce that officer; what it most fears is punishment, clash, breaking and harm, the Yang Blade (阳刃) and the Seven Killings (七杀) — those make a poor chart. An hour stem meeting the Killings (杀) is officer and killer mixed (官杀混杂). Where the four pillars carry punishment, clash, breaking or harm, none of them is read as an honoured chart. The officer coming to control me is one thing; my going to control the officer does no harm. One position holding two officers does no harm either. If the month command holds a Direct Officer and the hour stem or branch a Seven Killings, it can no longer be spoken of as Direct Officer. Take Yang Wood using Yin Metal as officer, born after the mid-qi of the eighth month, Metal strong at Rooster (酉): that is Direct Officer. If Yin Metal does not show in the stems but the branches hold Snake (巳), Rooster and Ox (丑), then even outside the mid-qi of the eighth month it may still be called an officer. What matters is a strong self, with the hour returning to ground where Yang Wood is strong. If the year or hour shows a Direct Officer and the branches make an officer pattern too, then the eighth-month mid-qi does not bind. In general the officer star needs Direct Resource and a strong self before it opens out; with no Hurting Officer breaking the Resource (印) and the self not weak, it is an honoured chart. If the chart has an officer star and the fortune runs into Hurting Officer, it is not favourable; one must wait for a Direct Resource or officer-strong period, and then office can be had. On too much of it: for a Yang Water (壬) or Yin Water (癸) person whose pillars are Dragon (辰), Dog (戌), Ox, Goat (未), Snake and Horse (午) with no officer or Killings showing in the stems, then officer and Killings are hidden inside in quantity. If the pillars already carry something to hold them down, well; if not, a Wood period is wanted, and a Wood trine is good too. Broadly, much officer means mixture, and it must be cleared and cleaned before blessing comes; and much officer running an officer period does not answer either. On mixture: the officer star wants to be pure and not mixed. Take Yang Wood using Yin Metal as officer: if the year is Yin Metal, the month Rooster and the hour another dead officer, then however many there are it does no harm, because purity is wholly good. But if there is a Yang Metal (庚) or a Monkey (申), then it is mixed into a Killings and injures the self. A Fire period to hold it down is wanted, and then blessing comes out. The rest follow the same way. In verse: Direct Officer must be sought in the month; unbroken and uninjured, the honour does not stop — jade bridle and gold saddle, true wealth and rank, two ranks of banners going up to the imperial city. In verse: the true qi of the officer star is reckoned from the month; no clash and no breaking is rarest of all; with the middle years' fortune coming to help, general and minister, duke and marquis, are all within reach. In verse: Direct Officer is kindness and virtue, pure in temper — a place can be made by writing and the academy; officer and Resource producing each other, met by the year's fortune, and here is a court official in the jade hall. In verse: Direct Officer broadly wants the self strong; where the qi is weak, seek a strong period. Let the year and the period meet living, strong ground, and with no clash and no breaking it is prosperity. In verse: with Yin Earth (己) as the day stem and an officer star showing, the month command must hold a Yang Fire (丙) or a Yin Fire (丁); Metal and Water producing each other makes a low pattern, and Fire arriving to gather it up gives Wealth its name in strength. In verse: a Yin Metal day with a Yang Fire showing and the month at Tiger (寅) — inside the pattern it turns back and grows a root of wealth; the officer star must not be met twice over, and when the fortune comes to clash and punishment, Rooster and Monkey are feared. In verse: the eighth-month officer star gets its proper name, and what the pattern most fears is Rabbit (卯) and Yin Fire; clear those out of the pillars and the fortune does the same, and the honour and the name show.

夫正官者，甲见辛之类；乃阴见阳为官，阳见阴为鬼，阴阳配合成其道也。 大抵要行官旺乡，月令是也。月令者，提纲也。看命先看提纲，方看其餘。 既曰正官，运复行得官旺之乡、或是有成局；又行不得伤官之地，并金财旺之乡，皆是作福之处。 正官乃贵气之物，大忌刑冲破害；及于年月时干，皆有官星隐露，恐福渺矣！又须看年时上别有是何入格？作福去处，？方可断其吉凶。 茍一途而执取之，则不能通变，必有差之毫釐，谬以千里之患，经曰：『通变以为神者』是也。 正官或多，反不为福。何以言之？盖人之命，宜得中和之气，太过与不及同；中和之气为福厚，偏党之剋为灾殃。 既用提纲作正官，年时支干位，或有一偏官便杂矣！不可不仔细以轻重推测也。 又曰，于月令得之是也，喜身旺、印綬。 如甲用辛官，喜土生官；最怕刑冲破害、阳刃七杀，为贫命；如时干逢杀，乃官杀混杂。盖四柱有刑冲破害，皆未为贵命看。 官来剋我，我去剋官不为害。 一位若两官不妨。 若月令中有正官，时干支有偏官，便难以正官言之。 且如甲用辛为官，生于八月中气之后，金旺在酉，故谓之正官；如天干不透出辛字，却地支有巳酉丑，虽不能于八月中气之后，亦可言官。大要身旺，时辰归于甲木旺处。 如岁时透出正官，地支又有官格，却不拘八月中气之后。 大率官星须得印綬、身旺则发；若无伤官破印，身不弱者便为贵命。 如命中有官星，而行伤官之运，则不吉；必待印綬、官星旺运可发，必得官。 《诗诀》正官须在月中求，无破无伤贵不休；玉勒金鞍真富贵，两行旌节上皇州。 《诗诀》正气官星月上推，无冲无破最为奇；中年岁运来相助，将相公侯总可为。 《诗诀》正官仁德性情纯，词馆文章可立身；官印相生逢岁运，玉堂金马坐朝臣。 《诗诀》正官大抵要身强，气弱须求运旺方；岁运更逢生旺地，无冲无破是荣昌。 《诗诀》己干为主透官星，须要提纲见丙丁；金水相生成下格，火来拘聚旺财名。 《诗诀》辛日透丙月逢寅，格中返化发财根；官星不许重相见，运到冲刑怕酉申。 《诗诀》八月官星得正名，格中大怕卯和丁；若还柱内去其忌，运亦如之贵显名。 如壬癸生人，四柱是辰戌丑未巳午，天干不露官星与杀，则官杀暗藏于中为多。若四柱元有为好；若无制伏，须行木运，与三合木局亦好。 大凡官星多则杂，务要除而清之，乃可发福。 若官星多又行官运，亦不济事。 官星要纯，不要杂。 假如甲木用辛金为官，若年是辛，月是酉，时上亦是死官，虽多儘不妨，盖纯一儘好；若有金或庚申，则混杂为杀，以伤其身。要行火乡制伏，则发福也。餘倣此也。